In the morning, about four o’clock, the ship struck.  The shock we received upon this occasion, though very great, being not unlike a blow of a heavy sea, such as in the series of preceding storms we had often experienced, was taken for the same; but we were soon undeceived by her striking more violently than before, which laid her upon her beam-ends, the sea making a fair breach over her.  Every person that now could stir was presently upon the quarter-deck; and many even of those were alert upon this occasion that had not shewed their faces upon deck for above two months before:  Several poor wretches, who were in the last stage of the scurvy, and who could not get out of their hammocks, were immediately drowned.

In this dreadful situation she lay for some little time, every soul on board looking upon the present minute as his last, for there was nothing to be seen but breakers all around us.  However, a mountainous sea hove her off from thence; but she presently struck again, and broke her tiller.  In this terrifying and critical juncture, to have observed all the various modes of horror operating according to the several characters and complexions amongst us, it was necessary that the observer himself should have been free from all impressions of danger.  Instances there were, however, of behaviour so very remarkable, they could not escape the notice of any one who was not entirely bereaved of his senses; for some were in this condition to all intents and purposes; particularly one, in the ravings despair brought upon him, was seen stalking about the deck flourishing a cutlass over his head, and calling himself king of the country, and striking every body he came near, till his companions, seeing no other security against his tyranny, knocked him down.  Some, reduced before by long sickness and the scurvy, became on this occasion, as it were, petrified and bereaved of all sense, like inanimate logs, and were bandied to and fro by the jerks and rolls of the ship, without exerting any efforts to help themselves.  So terrible was the scene of foaming breakers around us, that one of the bravest men we had could not help expressing his dismay at it, saying, it was too shocking a sight to bear; and would have thrown himself over the rails of the quarterdeck into the sea had he not been prevented; but at the same time there were not wanting those who preserved a presence of mind truly heroic.  The man at the helm, though both rudder and tiller were gone, kept his station; and being asked by one of the officers if the ship would steer or not, first took his time to make trial by the wheel, and then answered with as much respect and coolness as if the ship had been in the greatest safety, and immediately after applied himself with his usual serenity to his duty, persuaded it did not become him to desert it as long as the ship kept together.  Mr Jones, mate, who now survives not only this wreck, but that of the Litchfield man of war upon the coast of Barbary,